emmillinnee

29 minutes ago, ROK2USA said:

Do you mind if I share your encounter in two other threads for people wanting to travel on ESTA? 

 

Just so people know about what could happen~ 

 

 

As long as you share the entire thread with the two successful/easy visits as well as the terrible experience! I want to help as many as possible and give a complete picture. Not just the experiences that went well nor just the hard experiences. 

2 hours ago, blchaddy said:

Thanks for all this info! My husband and I were just trying to find answers to all these questions about esta and traveling with pending 130…and found all our answers here!

I’m glad it was helpful! I scoured the internet for info about travel while waiting on the visa and wanted to provide the same help others provided to me. I will add that we crossed one more time in February via car from Windsor to Detroit. And it was a very different story. We were there for 6.5 hours and at first they told us we weren’t going to be allowed to enter. Some back story below:

my husband was in the US for 87 days from September 2021 to Christmas Day 2021. We left and went to Spain to see his family for the holidays and then flew straight to Toronto to stay there for three months while we continued to wait on his visa to be processed. We told the officers in Toronto about our entire plan, and they were cool with it. But in February my grandmother passed away and the funeral was going to be in Texas. I desperately wanted to go and it just didn’t feel right that my husband not be able to join. We knew he was really close to the 90 day limit so I crossed the border in my car to Detroit the day before we were planning on entering the US and asked the officer (explaining that he had a pending immigration visa). The office said it would be fine, but just in case to call the immigration office in Detroit and ask. I called, the office said it should be fine, but to bring proof of absolutely everything so that there would be no issues. Armed with a million documents printed out, we headed to Detroit from Canada. They were rude from the get go, calling us liars, frauds, that we shouldn’t have been granted the ESTÁ if we answered the questions truthfully, etc. they brought my husband to a cell in a back room and made him remove his shoes, socks and shirt and did a very invasive pat down. Then they made us sit on opposite sides of the room and came back an hour or so and brought my husband to another back room and peppered him with questions about his entire life for an hour and a half. after that they were nicer and started treating us like humans again. And eventually let him pass, stamped his passport for another three month entry, and we were able to attend the funeral. It was terrible, and we swore to never enter again until he had his green card, but he was allowed entry. Just a warning for entering the border via car. The officer did tell us that the worst that could happen is that he was sent back to Canada. And that it shouldn’t affect his immigration case even if he was denied entry. But it was still scary. 

4 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

u file form 2555 for his foreign income (which will be excluded)  $108,700 

since Spain has a tax treaty with the US in following chart

 

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/international-businesses/united-states-income-tax-treaties-a-to-z

S

Slovak Republic
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland

follow the instructions on the form and it will tell u if u need to fill out Schedule B which is for Interest,  etc

Okay so I put my income + my husband's (Spanish citizen) foreign income in line 1 on 1040. Then fill out form 2555 with my husband's foreign income. Then it gets subtracted out of our taxable income on line 15 form 1040. The part I'm still confused about is putting my husband's income in line 1 on 1040 because he doesn't have a W-2...but if I don't add his income to line 1, it only subtracts it (online 8 as 'other income' from schedule 1 line 10) from our taxable income. 

I hope that makes sense...

1 hour ago, Wuozopo said:

What software are you using?  They vary on where they collect the foreign income information. TurboTax asks under Less Common Income > Foreign income.

I'm using free fillable forms. It's just the IRS forms themselves 

I am married to a Spanish citizen. We are still waiting for his interview date for the I-130 visa. I (US citizen) am working on filing taxes. I plan to attach from W-7 to get him a ITIN so that we can file as married, filing jointly. We want to claim the American Opportunity Tax credit because he took online classes in 2021 at a U.S. institution. 

My question is, where do I put his foreign earned income (only about $7000 USD if you convert them from EUR) on form 1040? 

This is a complicated question, but just curious if someone else has had the same issue/idea. Here are the details: 

I (US citizen) am married to a Spanish citizen. We got married legally in Spain in 2020. We filed I-130 in September 2020. We are DQ'd at NVC, but awaiting interview date still. 

My husband began taking online classes from a U.S. institution in Spring 2021, which cost ~$3000 USD.

He earned from working ~€5,000 in the year 2021.

Question: If I file 2021 taxes as married, filing jointly, get him a TIN by filing form W-7, can I claim the American Opportunity Tax credit of $2500? How long does it take to file form W-7?

3 hours ago, ohiohopeful said:

I used a married joint sponsor, who filed jointly, and didn't submit an I-864a (DQ'd without this form). But I agree with @pushbrk - submit everything they might possibly ever think you might someday need.

 

My advice is to upload a 1099 form if your sponsor has one - if they do not have one, upload a signed statement to say that they do not have one.

 

Spending a few days going through VisaJourney and finding every RFE that has been posted about could save you 3 months if it avoids an RFE

He only has a W2 because he is an employee of a company. I submitted my 1099 because I was working as a contractor for a company, but not an employee. Given that we submitted the other documents Dec 30, 2021, would you recommend uploading a signed statement saying he doesn’t have a 1099? Does it have to be notarized? Would the 3 month wait start over from the time we upload new documents?

4 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Yes, your joint sponsor's joint tax filing spouse should provide an I-864a even if she has no income, even if her income is not needed.  It's a contract.  Consular Officers tend to request the I-864a in this situation.  Best practice is to provide it up front, including spouse's evidence of status and residency.

We uploaded all the other documents December 30th 2021. If I submit the I864A for my mom, will the 3 month review delay start over from now? If so, I can’t decide if I should risk it now or wait and see if I get DQd without it like ohiohopeful…

We are currently at the NVC stage after having filed an I-130 petition for my husband (Spanish citizen) and I wanted to make sure I have all the documents required for NVC. 
 

We are using a joint sponsor (my dad) who filed 2021 taxes as married, filing jointly. Does this mean my mom needs to fill out an i864A? Even though she does not work nor have any sort of income? My dad’s income easily covers the 125% poverty line requirement. 

I’ve uploaded my W2, federal tax 1040 document from most recent year and  i864,

I’ve uploaded my dad’s i864, proof of citizenship (passport), proof of us domicile, W2, federal tax income return 1040 from most recent year,

My husband’s passport, passport photos, birth certificate, our marriage certificate, and police certificate.
 

Does it sound like we are missing anything else?

I realize you already commented on my post about this, but just completeness sake I’ll link it here. 

On 9/18/2021 at 2:26 PM, Racks08 said:

Please let us know how it goes. Wishing the best for you!

 

when was the last time you both tried this? 

Sorry I got confused, but we have travelled one time to the US before we had applied for the visa (pre-Covid too) and twice since applying for the visa/post-Covid. And all three times he was allowed to enter. The two times he entered with the visa pending, we had to go to a back room and they asked him a couple questions. 

1 hour ago, chris147 said:

Hi emmillinnee,

Any news? Did your husband have any problem entering the border with his ESTA in his last visit to the US in oct 2021?

Sorry, forgot to update this post! He was able to enter the US. But we did have a scare at the airline counter getting our boarding passes. While we were waiting I got an email that the status of his ESTA had changed. I logged in a looked, and it said that his ESTA was expired. Even though I had only done it the week before. When we got to the counter, they said they had to confirm with the embassy that he could travel. We showed them the ESTA (I had downloaded a pdf when it was valid), passports and marriage certificates in English and Spanish. Keep in mind that at this point in time, Europeans weren’t allowed to travel to the US because of COVID. And we were also traveling with our dog. The embassy took a while to answer, and we almost missed the flight because of it, but eventually they said yes and we ran to the gate. When we got to the US (Miami), he had to go in the back room and an officer asked him when he was leaving, what my name was and if we were married. And that he could only be there 90 days. After that, we were home free. 

8 minutes ago, aerodnight said:

Are you sure that the a pending visa might be a problem at this stage? I thought that they do not check it when accepting ESTA petition, but later when entering the US there might be some questions regarding the pending immigration visa

I’ll let you know in two weeks haha. But the last time he visited with an esta and pending immigration visa, they asked some questions, but he was allowed to enter and be there for three months. 

In the past I've been unsure about applying for an ESTA while the I-130 was pending. I've asked this question a couple times in the forum so I just wanted to let everyone know that we just applied for an ESTA for my husband while he has the visa pending document review at the NVC and it was approved within an hour. So for others wanting to visit from countries within the ESTA program, hopefully you won't have a problem either!

Question answered, we got approved a day after!!!

We have been awaiting the NOA2 for 11 months and our case just changed from “received and notified” to “actively being reviewed”. I’ve heard this could not really mean anything, or that people’s case will stay in the “actively being reviewed” stated for months. 
 

just curious what others’ experience was. If it was quick after it said it was actively being reviewed, or if we shouldn’t get our hopes up. 

As someone that is in the middle of the process, my thoughts to you would be to apply for the B2 visa for being able to do visits of 6 months before starting the I-130 visa process (if your fiancé's country allows it). That way she could visit for longer amounts of time and still not have problems with any of the visas. If you do the F1, even if you don't tell them about the desire to immigrate) you're going to have problems later when you try to apply for the I-130 visa trying to convince them that this wasn't your plan all along. I'd get the B2 visa before you even get married though, so that that one doesn't get denied. But other than that...move to her country to avoid being separated for so long. Maybe in a while, after you have residency in that country, maybe you can apply for jobs back in the states and then apply for DCF if you get one and have to move within a short amount of time. But that depends on, once again, your fiancé's country's rules. 

3 hours ago, JEM87 said:

Hello Anyone Willing to Help, 

 

I'm a U.S. citizen living in Chicago. My fiancé is from Ghana. We have plans of getting married (just a court signing) in December, but having an actual ceremony in August of next year.

This is because we want to have a wedding and we want to involve his family in Ghana for traditional reasons. So we were thinking the K-1 visa route was not a good option because if he got here, he wouldn't be able to leave the county until he gets all the proper documents to get back into the county. The ceremony is august would also be a destination wedding, I have family and friends willing to travel to Accra for the wedding. 

 

So my questions:

Does it make sense to move forward in that manner? 

Do I need a lawyer right now?

If we're going with the marriage visa, how early can we get that process started? (Can I start it now even though we're getting married officially in December or do I have to wait?

I saw some articles mentioning reviewing taxes of the sponsor, is that true? I'd like to know other peoples' experiences with that. 

 

If there's anything else we should know regarding starting points, please share. It would be greatly appreciated

 

I hope what I said makes sense

 

I think this depends on a lot of factors and also what's most important for y'all. Is your fiancé currently in the United States? If so, is he on a visa that would permit him to get married? Is the December wedding going to be in Ghana or the US? This would change the correct procedure to follow to get him his green card. I think you are right...the K-1 would not be the way to go. As others have said, this can be done without a lawyer if it's not a complicated case and if you have some time to dedicate towards researching the correct procedure. I personally don't know anything about reviewing taxes...if you are asking if they ask for tax documents, yes. To verify the sponsor meets minimum US income requirements, but if you don't meet them, you can get a joint sponsor (my dad is doing it for me because I haven't lived in the US for over 3 years). 

How important is it for y'all to not have to be separated for long periods of time? If it's something y'all really want to avoid, maybe you could look into a B type visa so he could come visit for longer periods of time, THEN apply for the IR1 visa (I-130 petition). I'm not sure about specific Ghana regulations or if they allow B type visas, but it's something I wish we would have done before filing the I-130 because once you file an immigrant visa, you will likely get denied for non-immigrant visas.

Or if you can move there, what visas would you need? How long could you visit? If you moved there, could you look into DCF if y'all qualified for special circumstances? 

You can start preparing the I-130 petition before getting married (gathering documents, figuring out how to fill out forms, getting evidence of a relationship, translating documents, etc), but you won't be able to turn it in until you have the marriage license. 

On 5/30/2021 at 3:30 PM, saied said:

Me and my wife both reside in Turkey currently. I filled for I-130 in November2020  and it is still being processed  with the USCIS. I did not know about DFC method and would like to go this route. Is it too late for this to happen?

 

I was considering the same thing. We got married in August of last year and filed online in September 2020 and it was originally being processed in Nebraska. I (the petitioner) got a job offer in March with an October start date. We thought it would be okay because the Nebraska center processes cases fairly quickly. However, a couple days ago, using the 'ask Emma' feature on the USCIS website I talked to a live agent that told me our case had been transferred to the Potomac USCIS center. So now we are trying to figure out a way to get it expedited or do DCF. I contacted the embassy in Madrid to ask about it and they said in order to apply for DCF, I would FIRST have to cancel the petition with the USCIS without knowing if they would accept the petition for DCF. IF they accepted it we would have to repay the file fee and they said they were backlogged from COVID until November. So for us, even though we qualify for the DCF exceptional circumstance of job offer, it's better to wait I think. But...you could apply for jobs in the US, if you get one and think it will be substantially faster, cancel the original petition and try the DCF route. But...the longer you've been waiting the riskier that is. This is the link to the exceptional circumstances and DCF info: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-6-part-b-chapter-3

I was considering the same thing. We got married in August of last year and filed online in September and it was originally being processed in Nebraska. I (the petitioner) got a job offer in March with an October start date. We thought it would be okay because the Nebraska center processes cases fairly quickly. However, a couple days ago, using the 'ask Emma' feature on the USCIS website I talked to a live agent that told me our case had been transferred to the Potomac USCIS center. So now we are trying to figure out a way to get it expedited or do DCF. I contacted the embassy in Madrid to ask about it and they said in order to apply for DCF, I would FIRST have to cancel the petition with the USCIS without knowing if they would accept the petition for DCF. IF they accepted it we would have to repay the file fee and they said they were backlogged from COVID until November. So for us, even though we qualify for the DCF exceptional circumstance of job offer, it's better to wait I think. But...you could apply for jobs in the US, if you get one and think it will be substantially faster, cancel the original petition and try the DCF route. But...the longer you've been waiting the riskier that is. I would suggest trying to find out if your petition is still in Nebraska. From what I've heard on the forum all online petitions first go to Nebraska and then a lot of them get transferred. 

I considered this option as well because, like you, didn't want to be separated from my fiancé (now husband) and he was in the process of studying in university anyway. But, like the other members are saying, I read up on the rules or getting a non-immigrant visa while you have an immigrant visa pending and it is difficult and risky. If it gets denied, you won't be able to visit at all. If you have ties to your home country such as a job that you have to get back to, an apartment lease, property, degree program that requires you to go back to your home country to finish etc., these things would all help I assume...if you are allowed to present them as evidence. But, it's still very risky, likely to get denied and then you'll be in a worse position than before. We ended up getting married in my fiancé's home country, since we both lived there, and are now in the I-130 process. Best of luck. 

1 hour ago, Nitas_man said:

All of them do emergency DCF and USC job / relocation is a listed reason

 

I would reach out to the embassy soonest.  Citizens Services, not IV (Immigrant Visa).  Citizens Services is for your stuff (like your petition).  A consulate accepted one for me awhile back, even though the actual visa and interview was done at the embassy a couple months later.

The embassy's reply...there's no way I'm going to cancel the original petition if they can't even tell me if they are going to accept the case. Is that really what you have to do with DCF? Cancel the original, hope they accept your case and if not be prepared to start the process all over again? 

7 hours ago, Chancy said:

 

If you both currently live in Spain, I recommend contacting Madrid to ask if they'll accept your case for DCF with exceptional circumstances because of this job offer.  If they don't accept, it won't affect your current petition.  If they do accept, you'll have to pay the fee again but you get to skip ahead of the line straight to the embassy.

 

I contacted Madrid to ask! Thank you for the tip!

7 hours ago, igoyougoduke said:

expedited for EAD or Green card? 

Expedite the processing time for the I-130 petition. 

5 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Why would his ESTA be denied?

 

If it was then you have no other choice than to apply for a B.

 

Assuming it is the normal immigrant intent denial not an issue for 1 130

Sorry, I meant to ask if the renewal for the ESTA would likely get denied due to his pending I-130 visa

48 minutes ago, emmillinnee said:

We found out today that our petition was transferred from Nebraska to Potomac office, thus meaning longer processing times. We both live in Spain currently and I (US Citizen) received a job offer with a start date of October 2021 and were hoping to both be able to move to the States for my job in the Fall. After the news, I spent the day trying to figure out if we could get it expedited/contact with representatives. My husband, from Spain and in possession of an ESTA visa, would be able to come for 3 months on a tourist visa, but I wondered if instead of trying to rush the processing times (which I know is a slim chance) if there were a way to just get an extended visitor visa while we are waiting? I know I've heard of other couples getting to visit for 6 months in the forum. Is that possible for Europe/US couples? Thanks for any advice ahead of time! 

36 minutes ago, arken said:

He can apply for the tourist visa which will generally allow for 6 months stay at a time however,  with the pending petition and 3 months visit availabiiity through ESTA, it is doomed for denial imo. Remember visitor visa denial will also nullify ESTA. I would use ESTA.

27 minutes ago, Boiler said:

I do not know how generous Madrid is with B's for Spaniards, if it is refused he needs to reapply for ESTA and tick the box he has been denied a visa. Which could complicate matters.

26 minutes ago, mushroomspore said:

I mean, you can always try but the main issue with him getting a tourist visa is that he's declared immigrant intent with the filed I-130. From the embassy/consulate's point of view, it's probably not worth it to them to grant him an extended temporary-stay visa because they already know he's going to be moving permanently to the US soon enough. And even if he did get the extended tourist visa, CBP decides how long to let him stay for that specific visit. The tourist visa can be valid for a while, but visa validity is not the same as allowed visit-time. And you don't find the visit-time until you get to CBP.

24 minutes ago, Strawberrymermaid said:

If he tries to get a B1/B2 and gets denied, his ESTA will be revoked and then the option to visit at all is quite hard. I read of a couple who tried this. Husband was from France, and they were denied, and now he cannot come to the US at all. I would either prepare to be separated for a bit or have him come in short visits over an extended period of time on the ESTA.

Update to original post: I just looked at my husband's original ESTA and realized that it will expire next month. Can we re-apply for another ESTA? Or will that most likely get denied as well? In which case, should we just try applying for the B2 visa anyway if he already wouldn't be able to visit? And would a denial for a B2/ESTA visa affect the I-130 petition?